Did we learn a lesson in the Betamax vs VHS standards war? Evidently not since incompatible standards continue to plague the computer and digital technology worlds to this day. And while DVD has all but replaced tape, time does have a way of working things out. Many of the DVD recorders now work with multiple standards and Blu-Ray has become the accepted high-capacity DVD standard.
But incompatibility issues continue in even the newest kinds of media. Take flash memory as an example. Flash memory cards continue to appear in all kinds of consumer electronic devices these days. Cell phones, computers, digital cameras and printers are just some of the many devices that work with or rely upon these tiny flash memory cards that retain megabytes of data without battery power. Yet there are over 20 different formats out there in the mainstream. And while these cards come in different shapes, sizes and capacities, they all basically do the same thing. Why oh why do they keep making different flash memory standards? Just to keep you up on the matter, the different flash memory cards are CompactFlash Type I and Type II, SD Card, miniSD, MultiMediaCard, RS-MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, SmartMedia and xD. And most of them have variations making for even more types!
But I have a way for you to deal with all of them at once. It turns out that there is one company that makes all of these flash memory card types. So it wasn't much of a stretch for them to come up with a single device that can read as well as write to every single one of them. The company is SanDisk and their device is called the ImageMate All-In-One USB 2.0 Reader.
Actually SanDisk makes several different ImageMates but this 21-in-1 model represents their effort to consolidate the many Flash memory standards. The ImageMate All-In-One USB 2.0 Reader is a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 multi-card Reader/Writer that connects to your computer's USB port. SanDisk says that this with read/write speeds of up to 34MB/s, this is one of the fastest USB 2.0 readers you can find. And all of these formats work without the need for clumsy adapters. The All-In-One USB 2.0 Reader is fully compatible with Windows as well as the Macintosh OS X operating system, it needs no additional software to operate and so it works right out of the box.
The ImageMate receives power from its USB connection as it needs no separate power adaptor. Inserting any of the 21 kinds of flash memory cards lights a blue LED to show the card is being recognized by the device. As data is transferred, the blue LED will flicker. The face of the ImageMate is clearly labeled so you know what kind of memory card plugs into which slot. You can also insert more than one card at the same time if you are so inclined. When inserted, an image of each card will appear on your computer's desktop as a logical device. From there, you treat the data on the card as you would any other storage device.
ADVERTISEMENT
The ImageMate All-In-One USB 2.0 Reader comes with its own magnetic stand that positions the unit at an optimal vertical angle or you can simply let it rest on the table. But however you position it, it puts you in the best possible position when it comes to dealing with all of your different flash memory cards.
The ImageMate All-In-One USB 2.0 Reader sells for $32.99 and is available from the SanDisk website at www.sandisk.com .
(Craig Crossman is a national newspaper columnist writing about computers and technology. He also hosts the No. 1 daily national computer radio talk show, Computer America, heard on Business TalkRadio -- Monday through Friday, 10 p.m.-midnight ET. For more information, visit his web site at www.computeramerica.com .)
